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Wayne has graciously agreed to let me come down for two weeks and learn the art of woodgas building firsthand, building one of his trucks and finishing mine. This will serve as a trip journal so you all can follow along.

I'm leaving Monday, early. Will keep you updated on our progress!

In case you haven't seen it, here's the truck I'll be taking down there on gasoline, hopefully coming back on woodgas:

I'm excited for you and your Toyota. I've been looking at Toyotas the last couple of weeks and wondering if anyone had gasified one. I had one years ago and loved the truck. Now you need to start posting picks and updates.

Chris F.
I will keep people posted on the mount up. I do have pictures of my gasifier over on the woodgas site, I have not brought them here yet. I always have to have my beautiful wife help me when I do stuff that like that on the computer.
David

It might be hard to do but if we get Chris’s truck gasified and running good I will try to talk him into driving almost home on gasoline and waiting until 60-70 miles out and light it up on wood.
With a new gasification system and a new driver there are a lot of things that can happen that one needs to sleep on to figure it out .
I still maintain 25% machine 75% operator.

Wayne, could you size the throat area and right above so that if Chris wants to bale out on his engine and shove a good ole 440 in there, he'll be able to have a healthy ride? He won't have that power from your recent video of the gasoline Dakota that I'm sure Lisa doesn't know about,
but he'll be able to get tickets on the freeway. Ever think about doing a bed and breakfast? Truthfully, I would be happy with a tent and an extension cord............

Wayne, My jaw just about hit the floor when you mentioned your wife was in the bed of the truck when you did that burn out. I'm surprised we didn't her scream "Wayne!! Stop this truck this instant!!"
What our wives go through sometimes....
She sounds like a keeper.

Chris, I love it when a plan comes together ... ML PS, 45.42 bucks for a carton of cigs ????? .. I think they were 15 cents when I started smoking and I remember when they went to a quarter .. I quit in July of 91 .. Dollar ain't worth spit ...... A large candy bar was 5 cents when I was a kid .. It was a killer when they went to a dime .. I think they cost a buck now or more .. Say hi to Wayne .. I will probably call later to bust your chops but need to make some money first ..

Can you estimate the number of man-hours the sections of the build are taking... like __ hrs for the burn chamber, and __ hrs for the heat exchanger, etc... or even the big total like a month of Saturdays to do the whole thing. (not counting the drives to Ala). Great work !!

Gary, Wayne estimates about 250 hours in one of his Dakotas. More time for new models like the V10, less time on this one since I had already partially built it. We will get a breakdown eventually. For example the hopper took about two days.

Not to worry SteveG.
He will get his come'uptance once he starts daily woodgas operating and discovers why many of us say black denim pants, black caps and black T-shirts are the official recommended gasifier operators clothing. Can't attract the girls always looking soot smudged and char stained. Even then he's gonna have to find just the right woodburing country girl likes the smell of woodsmoke. Warm and homey and minds you of a kitchen woodstove, meat smoker, or campfire living.
Hmm. Come to think of it, seems the minstrels get forgiven for a lot.

Chris & Wayne, I got my schedule C done while the video was downloading with the phone modem .. Fortunately Wayne only had to hang over the edge for a minute ... My guess is he was dropping the fittings in another bucket under the hood. At least one hit the ground. I'm hoping you will get your two trucks to Indiana so you can race each other and I can just kick back and enjoy the event. I put new tires on my survey truck and changed the oil yesterday and I guess the noise from the old tire wasn't the tire. Have to replace a wheel bearing now. Seems I never have time to play .. Mike L

Lots of work around here but we have to have a break sometime. On Friday night we fired up the woodburner and headed out to Jacks' for supper. We watched several folks walk by the truck and not one of them noticed that it was any different. The truck gives no sign of being wood powered. No smoke or smells.

Nice work all. The throttle body being added looks good. Couple of questions, What are all the extra holes in it going to get sealed with, silocone? Then also are you going to have two gas peddles. Keep up the good work, wish I were there. The banjo playing is good too. I could handle a camp fire and a couple hours of that.

The throttle body is sealed up fine, Wayne had used it previously on the 460 Ford. Yes there is a second gas pedal. I may eventually get a mechanism for switching the linkage on a single pedal, but for now we'll keep it simple.

It has quite a bit more power than the Ford. Not for sure on the horsepower but its enough that I can feel it. One of the advantages of the v10 is the multiport injection and the computer timing advance, seems to help the power some.

The mileage varies a lot depending on how I'm using the truck, I think when I was testing it over the road it was getting about 3/4 miles per pound.

Had a fellow come out to the farm that hails from Georgia. He farms on a large island down there on the coast. Seemed like a real nice fellow, wanting to build a truck he can use on his farm down there.

Wayne may be the best used Dodge sales person there is. Before I met Wayne and rode with him I would have never considered a V-10. Now I spend hours per week searching for one. I need a farm truck that will earn its keep around here. If I don't find a V-10 I'll have to take a Ford or Chevy.

Wayne the Woodburning "used Dodge salesman." He might even get some kind of award.

Wayne tells me he never was a Dodge man, they just happen to make the only V8 in a small pickup (Dakotas). Then when he was looking for a big farm truck, the V10 Ram was about the biggest gas motor you could get in a pickup. There are V10 Fords as well, only 6.8L though compared to the Dodge 8.0L. There's no replacement for displacement.

Goodmorning Wayne;you must have a fairly small fuel hopper. I would like to build a unit like this also if it could pull a trailer loaded with pallets. My Ford has a hard time keeping up with traffic with much of a load, with the box under the carb there isnt much vacum when I push it , and when I try to run hybrid the fuel just falls into the intake manifold and it floods or chugs and jerks. Does your Ford have this problem when you try to run hybrid?
Thanks Ron L

I can't really show what's inside the gasifier here in the public forum, but it's basically a vessel in a vessel, transferring heat from the hot gas to the incoming air. When you get on the Premium area there are lots of pictures of the heat exchanger and everything else.

The truck is nearly ready to run!! We have the whole thing painted and mounted up. The PVC has been cut and fitted, and glued in place. Gauges installed, condensate tank plumbed, engine cranks up on gasoline. Still a few things to finish up and we can try it out on woodgas.